My gardens ( 2 )

My gardens ( 2 )

Posted on 23 Aug, 2008 9 comments

When we first had a look at what later on became our farm, I had a fright when I saw the house and the gardens. But the farm was fabulous. Some cattle was grazing in a paddock and further on was virgin land, meaning bushland as far as the eye could see. We drove our car along the track to the end of the property, crossing a romantic wooden bridge, underneath of which a lovely fresh looking creek was running. But what and how we did on the farm will be told at a later date. Now it is the garden which gets a good look. We decided to buy the place after hubby did some soil tests, wearing his rubber boots and digging in deep with his shovel. He approved of the soil; it was suitable for growing apple trees.
So we moved into the place after we had the painters in, who also did some renovations to the old farm house. We moved in with our 3 month old baby girl. The house was fine now, but the gardens needed a complete overhaul. This was a very gradual process, as it was all done by me. I had the baby to look after and hubby was too busy establishing the orchard. And it remained this way for years to come, lol.
So, what did the garden really look like? The house was on a sloping site as we lived in the hills. The front was at least 3 meters above the ground, whilst the back had a flat paved area and a concrete veranda, which was lower that the back lawn. You had to climb 3 steps to get onto the back lawn. The lawn was borderd with flowerbeds, which on their turn was edged by a picket fence. The fence was incomplete, some pickets were missing, others were loose and hanging sideways. A sad sight. Where to start? I had absolutely no experience in gardening apart from planting that paw paw tree and those peanuts in my parents garden. I decided it was time to go shopping. So I bought my own shovel, gloves, secateurs, a little planting spade, a grass rake and a push push lawn mower, the kind with the turning metal blades, no engine or anything. The lawn was not so large, it would keep me fit! On one side of the house was an oleander, which I immediately pulled out, thinking of our baby, who would in time start exploring, once she could walk. On the other side was a nice big and shady nectarine tree. Against it, and a little off the ground was an old platform from a tankstand. This would be an ideal spot to put my baby in the pram on, so she’d have fresh air and shade. Meanwhile I was pulling up the weeds in between the flowers. These were asters and something else I cannot remember. The baby woke up and I went over to check her. Then I had a shock: a snake was just slithering away from underneath that platform into the never never. My heart pounded. The baby was ok. I had a flynet over the pram, nothing would have been able to get in. But I knew now: next thing to do: mow the lawn, nice and short! So I could see all the snakes which would ever travers my garden. The platform had to go too. From now on I would put the pram on the back veranda.
The veranda ended on one side at a low stone wall, on top of which some kind of flowers were growing, lilac ones with a succulent kind of leaf and a woody stem. The other side had a drive to the garage and to the gate. The drive had a gravel surface.
That year I worked hard in the garden, happily shaping its contour, planting native shrubs. I took the picket fence away, since we had no neighbours other than the forest. Kangaroos came in from all directions anyway. A year later hubby build on a veranda on the side, so the bedrooms would have a lot more shade and the winter weather would not hit the windows. It looked really nice. The ground next to the side of the house was sloping. Up against that veranda I planted canna lilies, orange flowers bloomed soon. Lower down, but still next to the house I planted a Eureka lemon tree, of which we had many many lemons, year after year. As we had cold winters ( to -6C ) these lemons got thick skins, so as to protect themselves against the frost. Apart from the occasional sooty mold, it thrived beautifully. We sprayed it with copper and that problem was solved.
In the fourth year we build a swimming pool, which we covered with a flyscreen cage, so we would not be bothered by the bushflies in spring. Inside the cage we tiled an area where we could sit under an umbrella. The cage had shade cloth on top, which kept the water nice and cool. You really needed that as temps in summer were often over 30 and at least 2 weeks over 36 and even days of 40C. I had some tubs with plants inside the cage and it all looked wonderful. As the pool was built on the slope, we had to dig out one half and pile up the soil on the other side. So one side sloped and I grew lawn over that. By then I had bought a Flymo lawn mower ( the petrol type ) and could easily mow that lawn. I mentioned before, I was in charge of the garden as hubby was always working in the orchard.
One day I visited a friend and our children played in the sand pit. I noticed all these little seedling trees growing in the sandpit, as it was underneath a lovely shady tree. It was a Catalpa tree and yes, of course I could take as many seedlings home as I liked. So I did! I grew them in a pot in the first year and then planted them out. I planted the 5 strongest ones and I had so much pleasure from them in the years I lived there, even giving away lots of seedlings to whom ever was interested. These trees were a true sign of spring: as soon as the little green leaves emerged I knew it was spring and we would have nice weather. My birthday is in the end of November and every year those Catalpa’s were flowering on my birthday like a huge big bouquet. Then when it was really hot in January they provided shade for the children to play underneath, as their leaves are very large. In autumn I would curse them as their leaves needed raking and raking and raking again. But remember? I had bought a leaf and grass rake for one dollar! The magpies loved the trees and so did the crows. Some years we pruned them to get more life into them. But as I write this they are still standing there, 40 years later.
My father came to visit us from Holland and of all the presents he gave us, I treasured the roses the most. He gave me three bushes, of which one is that wonderful yellow Peace, the other a soft pink florabundi and a red one. Unfortunately in those days I was not into names and never kept the labels, shame on me! I have never been able to trace their names yet either, but perhaps someone here might. These roses didn’t do that well, as I planted them along the side fence against the forest and they were in the shade of big Jarrah trees, so when we moved to our new house I took them with me.
But that garden will be talked about in the next blog.

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